10 Baseball Stadiums I Want to see before I Die

It's finally here!!!! It is baseball season!!! The first spring training games of the year started yesterday afternoon. As a baseball fan I am very excited about this. As I was thinking about baseball season, I realized that there are many ballparks that I have not been to that I would like to visit before I die.

I did make a couple of rules though. First, it cannot be a ballpark that I have visited before. Although there are a few of those that I would love to visit again. Secondly, the ballpark must still be actively used by a Major League Baseball Team. I realize that there are still a couple of ballparks still around that teams used to use, but those will not count. Sorry Yankee Stadium.




The ballparks pictured above in no particular order are Camden Yards, Fenway Park, Progressive Field, Petco Park, Chase Field, Wrigley Field, Busch Stadium, Nationals Park, Citizens Bank Park, and PNC Park.

My Chat with a Beat Writer

Today I had the privilege of sitting down with Mr. Andrew Call, former Cleveland Indians beat writer for The Repository in Canton, Ohio. Mr. Call covered the Indians from 1995 until May 2008. During his time covering the Indians, he was able to see some of great baseball teams and players.

When I asked him who his favorite baseball team was when he was growing up, I got an answer that I was not expecting. Mr. Call said that he rarely, if ever watched baseball as a young person. His school did not offer baseball either, so his exposure to baseball before becoming a sports writer was minimal.

Knowing that Mr. Call covered some good teams and players during his time in Cleveland, I asked him who his favorite players to watch were. I was not quite as surprised with his answers to this question. He said that his favorite hitters to watch were Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez. Belle was one of his favorites because he was a greatly feared hitter who had amazing power. Mr. Call liked watching Manny Ramirez because he was the best pure hitter that he watched.

Before I had time to ask my next question, Mr. Call answered it. Being a Giants fan, I wanted to ask him what he thought about Omar Vizquel. He said that Omar was his favorite defensive player to watch. I completely agree with him on that statement after having the pleasure of watching Omar play for a couple years in San Francisco.

During my chat with Mr. Call, I asked him about the greatest moment he was able to witness in baseball. The moment he mentioned is not necessarily a famous baseball moment, but having been in similar situations I was able to understand where he was coming from. The moment he mentioned was the the first game of the playoffs in 1995. This was the first time the Indians had been to the playoffs since losing to the New York Giants in the 1954 World Series. This moment stood out in his mind because of the electricity that was running through the crowd in that game.

Talking with someone who followed the game closely for several years was a great pleasure for me. I was able to ask Mr. Call many other questions about baseball, but didn’t write it all down this time.

Don’t be discouraged, winter is almost over and Spring Training Games are just around the corner!!!

Steroid Era*

A few days ago another Major League Baseball superstar, Alex Rodriguez, admitted to using steroids. I am not going to bash A-Rod, after all I am a fan of the Giants which had the most famous steroid user so far. Because of steroid use there are people that want to put an asterisk next to records that were set by people who used steroids. While I do not think that it was right for players to use steroids, I do not think that an asterisk should be put by there names. Instead of putting asterisks by names, we need to name this era like we have named past eras in baseball. We have had the live ball, the dead ball, integration, and free agency eras. You may be thinking that this would not be fair to all of the players that did not take steroids though. I would disagree with that statement. Even players that have not used steroids have been effected by steroid use because they were playing against players that did take steroids. If the players that took steroids had inflated statistics, then it would make sense that players that did not take steroids would have deflated statistics. In the end is naming the era going to effect how we view certain players? Probably not, but it will explain why players stats are the way they are during this time. As far as Major League Baseball is concerned, they do not need to worry about asterisks or eras. They need to focus on cleaning the game of steroids so that we can start a new era.

Welcome to Dan's View

Welcome to Dan's view from the bleachers. I am a big baseball fan and love how the history of the game is still important to the sport today. I grew up in San Francisco watching the Giants play every day on TV or at the ballpark. As a Giants fan, I have much history with my franchise to be proud of and am reminded of this history whenever I go to a game and see statues of some of baseball's greatest players like Willie Mays. Although I am a Giants fan and love their history, I love the history of the game itself with all of its great players. I think that many times people forget about history, so they do not fully understand what is happening in the sport today. I want this blog to link today's games with yesterday's history that way we can have a greater understanding and love for America's Pastime.